Looking for empirical evidence that the UTR Pro Tennis Tour is a launching pad for professional tennis players?
Look no further than the 2024 US Open in New York, where qualifying is taking place ahead of the season’s final Grand Slam championship, which starts Monday.
This week in New York, 34 players who have played on the UTR Pro Tennis Tour have competed or are still competing in the 2024 US Open men’s and women’s qualifying draws. That’s more than 25% of the 128 players competing in both draws.
The plethora of players clearly shows that the PTT pathway is only growing stronger as the tour enters the final stretch of year four and solidifies ambitious expansion plans amid a dynamic new partnership with Sportradar.
UTR Sports highlights three players to watch from each qualifying draw:
Three to watch from 2024 US Open women’s qualifying draw
Kim Birrell (UTR Rating 11.84)
The promising Australian is on the cusp of qualifying for another US Open. Birrell, who played on the UTR Pro Tennis tour in 2021, qualified for the 2023 US Open before falling to 2021 Australian Open finalist Jennifer Brady of the U.S.
Birrell has also played in the Australian Open main draw five times, including a run to the third round in 2019, when she beat Spain’s Paula Badosa and Donna Vekic of Croatia.
Birrell beat up-and-coming American Robin Montgomery (12.01) in the opening round of qualifying and advanced to the third and final round with a straight-sets win versus Veronika Erjavec of Slovenia. Birrell will meet American Julieta Pareja (10.73) for a place in the main draw.
Mary Stoiana (UTR Rating 11.52)
Stoiana, who plays at Texas A&M, already has the highest UTR Rating of all women’s college tennis players. (See full college women’s tennis ranking list here). And she led her teammates to school history earlier this year when the Aggies won their first NCAA women’s tennis national team title.
READ MORE: Texas A&M makes history with NCAA women’s tennis title
Stoiana is a two-time PTT champion and won both on home territory, as Texas A&M hosts PTT events on campus at College Station. Stoiana won her opening qualifying match but fell in the second round to 12th seed Marina Bassols Ribera (11.69) of Spain.
READ MORE: Texas A&M's Stoiana Wins All-American Championship Title
Akasha Urhobo (UTR Rating 11.42)
Urhobo is only 17 years old yet has already celebrated three PTT titles, including one earlier this year in Boca Raton. The Fort Lauderdale native is up to No. 315 in the WTA rankings and made her Grand Slam qualifying debut at the 2024 US Open. The teenager fell in three sets in Queens to 26-year-old Priscilla Hon of Australia, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
READ MORE: UTR Pro Tennis Tour Roundup: Teens Urhobo, Perry Capture Titles
Three to watch from 2024 US Open men’s qualifying draw
Jacob Fearnley (UTR Rating 14.91)
Fearnley, like Stoiana, won a PTT title at his home campus, TCU in Fort Worth, Texas. And both of them celebrated national titles this past spring as well. It was also TCU’s first NCAA men’s college tennis team title.
Earlier this year, however, Fearnley came close to topping those accomplishments when he faced Novak Djokovic in the second round of Wimbledon. Fearnley pushed the all-time great before losing in four sets.
Fearnley won’t produce such magic next week in the main draw of the 2024 US Open. He fell to compatriot and 2019 NCAA men’s singles champion Paul Jubb (14.72) of the UK 6-1, 7-6(2).
Bruno Kuzuhara (UTR Rating 13.76)
Kuzuhara won the 2022 Australian Open boys' singles and boys’ doubles titles, and the 20-year-old American is climbing the professional rankings. Before triumphing Down Under, Kuzuhara honed his game by finishing second in a 2021 PTT tournament in Naples, Florida.
His home Slam debut will have to wait, though. Kuzuhara lost to Swiss Jerome Kym (14.66) 6-1, 6-2.
Li Tu (UTR Rating 14.24)
Tu is two sets away from qualifying for his first US Open. The Aussie has yet to drop a set into the third round of qualifying. Tu, who’s from Adelaide, beat Spain’s Alejandro Moro Canas (14.61) 6-4, 6-4 and No. 123 Marco Trungelliti of Argentina (14.74) 7-5, 7-5.
Tu, who has competed in all three of the other Grand Slam main draws, meets sixth seed Jesper de Jong of the Netherlands for the chance to make his US Open main draw debut.
The 28-year-old Aussie made his mark on the PTT in 2021, winning a pair of PTT trophies.
